I take my 30 years of reading the great classics of Economics, Literature, History, Political Science, Philosophy and Theology, and apply what I've learned to the most demanding problems which leaders face, especially investors and entrepreneurs.

The Seminary Bubble

Those who rise to the top are those who actually have a talent for preaching. Those who don’t, don’t last. After all, what matters more to the customer, the member: the ability to discuss the relationship between Paul Tillich’s theory of ultimate concern and Karl Barth’s version of neo-orthodoxy in light of the demythologizing textual hermeneutic of Bultman, or the ability to keep the congregation/audience’s attention for twenty minutes with a relevant sermon about family life? Seminary tends to give you loads of the former and little of the latter.

Seminary training has almost nothing to do with the talent for public speaking, and often leaves any evaluation of that talent later in the student’s training. For example, I know a man who went to a Bible College, worked hard, got good grades, got into a prestigious seminary, got good grades in seminary and shortly before graduation was invited, for the first time, into the pulpit. He found that he was paralyzed with fear and realized that he would be unable to be a preacher. He never became a pastor and has spent his life drifting from low wage job to low wage job and in recent years is chronically unemployed. Eight years of hard work and expensive tuition, wasted.

I’ve known scores of seminary students. Many have the natural leadership gifts to be pastors, but many do not. I’ve seen the ones who do not jumping through the bureaucratic hoops with a wife and children in tether, sacrifices made, poverty borne with grace, and then heartbreak. No pulpit, no job, except maybe a church planting opportunity with no start-up grant. The wives seem to suffer the most in these cases.

There must be a better way, and in fact there is a better way – the original one. Technology is the pin which is beginning to burst the seminary bubble. More on that next week.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.

Comments

Jerry this is a wonderful article and goes hand in hand with the mission of the organization I work for. Thank you for coming out and saying it. We would love the opportunity to speak with you about this as there are better solutions for educating pastors both here in the U.S. and around the world that are technology centered rather than traditional bricks and mortar type seminaries. We are working to make seminary free in multiple languages (English, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian and Arabic). Is there a way to contact you?

Pssst. There are female seminarians. A lot of them. The fact that you fail to acknowledge this – and make it very clear that you have in mind hetero men when you think “seminarian” – simply makes everything else you say sound less informed and therefore less persuasive. In some churches the biggest demographic growth in seminarians has been among women. You may not like that — for all I know you don’t believe in women’s ordination — but then you need to make that case; otherwise you sound both biased and un-reflective. I agree that theological education. Actually, I teach at a seminary and fear that seminary education won’t survive the entire duration of my professional life, so I have plans B, C, D, and E. But really, showing such an inaccurate assumption about who seminarians are does not help your case.

There is some benefit to education in some areas, for example, economics. I wouldn’t pay much attention to someone who has little economic education. They might write columns arguing for the continuance of a booming economy when we’re already six months into a recession.

Great article. I have the privilege to work at a seminary where the professsors are all pastors serving as adjunct faculty, classes and administrative offices are in donated church space, classes are offered the evenings and early mornings, and the staff is intentionally small. The result? 39+ years of quality training for current and future Church leaders at very low tuition rates ($100/credit hour) and an incredibly diverse student body.

Thank you, Jerry, for your wise comments. Your article is a much needed critique of the system of training pastors. I am a seminary student who will graduate next month and am glad to have strong possibilites for a call. While the seminary itself isn’t always set up for the kind of “practical education” that is needed alongside the theological piece, there are other ways that this type of education is required. I have been blessed to be part of a tradition in the ELCA that has internships, field education, CPE and other ways of making sure we are equiped with the needed skills before we go into the parish. The cost and length of training, though, certainly need to be critically reviewed!

I would also like to echo the points of a previous commentor to encourage you to think about pastor ministry as no longer a calling only for men. 50% of us seminary students in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) are women. 31% of actively serving ELCA pastors are also women. When you speak in terms of seminary students and their wives and families, not only do you forget me, but you also forget my soon to be husband and countless other spouses and partners.

Check E.D. Kain on the cost of education too, on Forbes…I have come across a lot of debate on this topic, scattered and not right on the visible surface, but for some other writing I signed up for email from the Chronicle of Higher Education — the free version has a lot of debate on the future of education and costs. But look at Kain as well. http://blogs.forbes.com/erikkain/2011/05/13/do-public-universities-still-exist/?utm_source=alertsdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20110514

The Catholic seminary generally takes 7 years to complete, maybe 5 if you have a solid theological and philosophical background.

Yes, there have been substantial consolidation of seminaries, but the number of seminarians recently started to show real signs of actual growth in the US…. never mind Africa – where the Church is literally exploding.

When cost became an issue, the Bishops generally found ways to subsidize it, and actually pay off students college loans.

You explain what a married family man would mean to the seminary system and the Bishops turn sheet white.

If you talk to any serving pastor about seminary and ask them “What percentage of your classmates had no business being in seminary?” you’ll get a response from 1/4 to 1/2 of them.

While seminaries should definitely alter their curriculum to be more practical, many are unethical in admitting students who should never be in ministry. Many prestigious undergrad schools require an interview prior to admission, but most seminaries do not. In fact, most seminaries are struggling to find enough students to pay the bills and thus have an incentive to admit students with serious personal and moral issues that will limit their finding employment in any faith-based work. Similarly, a good percentage of seminarians are there because they don’t know what else to do in life and have a hard time comprehending that faith work will require a higher standard of personal integrity than any other field.

Thanks for the article. I’m in ministry, called by God, no support or ordination but serving as faithfully as possible ; ) That said, I disagree with those that are saying that seminary education needs to change in the sense that it isn’t relative to one’s walk with Christ–should they not become employed as a result of the investment. We should all continue to seek God’s plan and Will for our life, including stepping faithfully into seminary journeys that result in spiritual or intellectual growth (the result of several years of seminary study ; )

I do agree wholeheartedly that seminary is incredibly prohibitive financially, I wrestle with this truth daily as I plan my continued education and service within Jesus church. As this article brings into light, the journey is filled with challenges that we can all connect on when serving.

I also agree with Sarah about women in ministry; however, I don’t think the point of this article, no matter how male-centered, is changed whether the seminarian is female or male, Presbyterian or non-denominational etc. Having sat and listened for many years to men dominated Sunday sermons, within multiple types of denominations, I do admit it used to feel a little weird being preached to by a woman — I reserve strong admonition for men not stepping up to the role but certainly have seen amazing giftedness within women preachers and gifted lay speakers over the years. Thus, I know that the gift of gab or theology isn’t, at all, reserved for men ;) To this I challenge men to step up but applaud women for listening to God’s call. I also applaud every seminarian. Don’t stop seeking truth, regardless of the “employment” opportunities!

I’m not sure how this conversation became a gender one, except that one early comment decided to bring gender politics into a discussion where there were none present. But to your bigger point: yes, it is God who calls and He who ordains. Graduate schools are an optional means of training, not an essential one.

Thanks for this article, as one who has been in pastoral ministry over 30 years and currently chairing our adjudicatory’s committee on ordination I find this article to be asking the correct questions dealing with today’s church. In a mainline denomination such as the one I am affiliated we have just switched from requiring a seminary education to now requiring a seminary education or its equivalent. It is up to us to decide what the proper equivalent is. We are also seeing a major shift in seminary education from on site classroom education to online education. While such a program may not be cheaper for the student it does enable the student to connect with a school of their denomination without changing locations. One school in our area has gone to almost all evening classes to accommodate working second career students. One of the valuable thing I received from my seminary education was the interaction with other students as we talked in the student lounge and commons area of the campus. I saw that as a part of the learning experience that I would have missed having been on line (if it had been available). Another shift in seminary education is more students are not seeking to enter pastoral ministry but another form of ministry outside the church. In addition seminaries and denominations such as ours require psychological evaluation of students and candidates in order to weed out those not suited for ministry. I do understand why seminaries are going on line with more and more classes and it is simple survival. I do question the extent in which students are receiving the best training for the future of the church. As for the person in the article who waited until right before graduation to enter the pulpit, that was a huge mistake on his behalf, his sponsoring congregation and his denomination. We were required to have preaching experiences as a part of the education, preaching class and field work. To wait that long for a first time experience show a lack of support for that student.

Mr. Bowyer has given voice to a urgent concern for the nurturing of church leaders in our times. In response to the primary issues of “high cost, long time commitment, limited ministry experience, and the burden on families” our church embarked upon a ministry training model that still takes three years but graduates seminarians without adding to their debt. The program is described at http://www.faithlafayette.org/seminary, and to date we’ve graduated two cohorts. Except for the students who relocate to serve as interns (‘apprentices’) in our church, the geographic service area is constrained by commuting distance. However, many well-established churches should be able to duplicate the model to serve churches in their regional/theological circles.